Symphonia was just okay to you? Details now. •3•

Bland, sluggish, and the entire late half felt like the pacing was incredibly slow and drawn-out to me. The Sylvarant arc was the most fun I had with it but Tethe'ella felt like it bloated the game far too much and at that point I just wanted it to be over.

Of course, I played Tales of the Abyss before this which seemed a lot more polished so maybe it's just based on that impression alone. I also hated the Tales of Symphonia anime.

Viable points, all of them.

Thank you for noting! As a whole I still enjoyed the game, I just won't go back to it anytime soon if ever.
(I'm also glad this happened in the second game: https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CmFQ0CN.....585E.jpg:large )

I've only played Dawn of the New World, and only for the promise of having monster party members. I haven't played Symphonia, but I do know the entire story and script as well as all the characters' backgrounds. Its praise originally came from being one of the few JRPGs on GameCube at the time as well as simply being a localized Tales title (which as you know back in the day was a surprise).

Yeah, the monster party members is actually a neat idea. Especially since the first wolf you get is blue so it kinda makes me think of one of the wolves I draw in this gallery.
I figured that's where the popularity lied though, I feel that way with Golden Sun as well.

Too bad New World is generally a reviled title by others. I had fun with it though so who cares what they say.

It's probably one of those games that is okay for a game but bad for Tales game. Every series has that.

Yeah, that's one way to look at it.

Hey Jork! Thats my spot! >:U

He fell in.

Symphonia had a ton of content and good music, but getting Lv250 is… Overkill.
So much overkill. Let's not forget the final dungeon with the hellish repeating tower full of goodies that raises our stats by double digits! (As if they weren't high enough…)

Why do RPGs do this? One thing I absolutely loved about Bravely Default is that the last chapter was balanced around Lv90 parties so you couldn't overlevel even if you tried.

Higher numbers =/= better game.

Because there's too much emphasis on burst damage and that "success" of making the player feel good through power. Stuff like damage and stat caps help alleviate this, but that doesn't mean other RPGs have also managed to balance that horribly in the player's favor. Plus, all the damage formulas with BIIIIIIG numbers are just more of a pain to code.

That's a big musclepillar.

He's big regardless!

What is happening to those two...

http://tehsquishyray.tumblr.com/
Context is always explained on my tumblr.

I see! Awesome stuff made clear

Yeah. Tales of Symphonia's story concepts are really interesting, butuh... obviously doesn't handle them amazingly well. It sets them up and then focuses on random MacGuffin hunting and the least interesting most typical JRPG plot detail--"the church was evil the whole time?????"

The combat has also been completely outmoded by most any other action RPG after it. The regeneration rate of TP in that game is unforgivable, especially considering the main goal of the battle system seems to be locking enemies in hitstun. Quickly recharging secondary resources are kind of the only way to make a fun action RPG.

If you have a PS3, I'd recommend Tales of Graces f. The story is (enjoyable) hot garbage, but the gameplay is really excellent--it works around this gimmick of steadily unlocking harder difficulties that you can switch between any time between battle (almost TWEWY-ish in all its abstract gamey systems) that alter the rules further and further to reward skilled play ALONG with upping damage ratios, which gives it maybe the best RPG progression system ever?

Man I was planning on playing through as many Tales games as I could since I got a PS3, thanks a lot for the recommendation! A question though: does it still have multiplayer?

Yes, Graces f DOES have multiplayer! It also has a combo system for casters, so it's more fun than ever (casting spells consecutively reduces their casting time, so the main strat is to cast low-level spells gradually into higher-level ones).

Also, imo, it has the biggest fun-to-play cast. There are kind of no normal attack in the game and the game's version of TP recharges shortly after dropping a combo (it has a lotta weird gameplay systems), so all the melee characters have cool mobility stuff you don't need to sparingly access.

Thanks a ton, this is very good to know!
(Also don't think I'm disregarding or anything, I don't really have anything to respond with!)

Don't worry, man! You don't owe me an essay just cuz I rambled about nerd stuff.
We Starfigs of the world aren't in it for that; we're true altruists, after all.